The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1887-01-06
OUR SUPERsTTTIONS.

1t Will, perhaps, surprise many AueIl-
cans to read. as they may do in recent
letter TO a French paper from the United
States, that the people OF this country
are among the most supcrstIiIous IN the
world, exceeding in this respect the
French, the Germans, and the English.
This statement cannot be proved, for
it is not true that any large number of
our people equal in superstitiousness the
French peasantry, or even the English
yeomanry. And yet it is undeniable
that our sailors are full of superstitions,
and that many of our farmers are the
absolute slaves of faliacies about the in
fiuence of the phases of the moon upon
their crops and upon the weather.
Many women, too, are apt to shud-
der at the breaking of a mirror, fearing
bad luck, and a whole family Of super
stitiops has been grouped about the cat.
The idle and foolish fear, in the South
West, that it is bad luck" to remove
cat from one house to another with q
moving family, has probably been the
cause of the desertion and cruel death
of more than one unfortunate animal.
Many superstitions, indeed, are wick
ed, and all are foolish.
The belief in the ''unluckiness" of
Friday is common all over the Christian
world, and retains a certain hold in this
country, in spite of the lucky" circum-
stances that America was discovered on
Friday. that the Pilgrims landed on Fri
day, and that the Declaration of Inde-
pendence was adopted on Friday. The
superstition arises from the belief that
our Saviour was crucitied on Friday.
How unworthy to suppose that the event
which saved mankind should have
doomed the world to perpetual ill-fort-
une on the day of it's occurrence!
If Friday were indeed an uniucky day,
nothing could have been undertaken in
this year, 1886, because the year began
on Friday. will end on Friday, and con-
tIins tifty-three Fridays; four of its
months contain five Fridays each; the
longest and shortest days of the year
are both Fridays, and, more dreadful
still, five changes of the moon fall On
Friday!
The fear Of the number thirteen is not
so common in this country as it is in
Europe. The superstition has It's origin
in the fact that the apostles, With the
Saviour, made thirteen at table. The
superstition in its original form was to
the effect that, if thirteen men were
seated together, one of the number was
sure to prove q traitor or a criminal
and be hanged. As executions ceased
to be of common occurrence, the notion
simply that one of the thirteen would
die within a year replaced the former
superstition.
The accidental spilling of salt is often
noted by the American housewife as
''unlucky," but rather, it seems. by way
of Jest than seriously. This supersti-
ton also goes back to ancient times,
when the exchange of a pinch of that
necessary article. salt was a sign of
friendship. quite naturally, and its re-
fusal q token of hostility. The over
throw of dish containing it was held,
therefore, to toreshadow the end of
friendship.
Superstitions about the moon are very
old and of very varied origin. Men OF
science tell us that there is, so far as in
huence of the moon upon the weather is
concerned, but one chance for any such
effect; and that is in the possibility that
the very slight amount of heat that the
full moon radiates may have some little
influence in dispelling clouds and rem
dering the atmosphere dryer.
A good story is told of a colored man
in the South who, though ignorant, was
wise enough to get along without squar-
ing all his acts by the state of the moon.
He was successful gardener, and the
vegetables he produced were always the
earliest and the finest
DO you plant your seeds in the new
of the moon, Gabriel, or in the old of
the moon?" he was asked.
go long, said Gabriel; Il plants
my seeds in de ground, an lets de moon
take care OBJ hers'fr'- YOUTHS Compa1a-
ion.